Artist and horsewoman Sue Burdan, 78, of Hastings died Saturday night at her home following a brief illness.

A date for a memorial service will be announced.

“It will be a celebration of her life, as she wanted,” said her son, John Burdan.

Sue Burdan was profiled two weeks ago on Page 1 in The Record.

Although she didn’t become a horse trainer as originally planned, she loved horses all of her life and was one of the founders of the St. Johns County Horse Council. Born in Philadelphia, she traveled in Peru and Venezuela with her geologist husband. Eventually the couple moved to Florida and she taught riding as well as showed horses.

After reading the recent story on Burdan, one of the girls she taught to ride in Venezuela wrote responded to it.

“She LOVED all of us and spent her time organizing riding trips and horse shows. We had no TV or radio and it gave us all focus and taught us responsibility and self confidence,” Patty Flynn Beling wrote.

Burdan was a professional artist whose favorite subjects were landscapes and animals. One of her paintings recently became part of the permanent collection of the St. Augustine Art Association.

She has been an active part of Hastings, helping with several art projects and donating paintings to the library there.

Survivors include her son and daughter-in-law, John and Linda Burdan; and a grandson.

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Sue was a wonderful woman, and a friend to so many ! She will be truly missed ! I am thankful to have a piece of her art work, it is of the mini barn at Starbrite, where I spend alot of my time. I will miss seeing Sue, but I will never forget her ! Love and prayers go out to her family~! Michelle Smith

I kno Ur looking down reading this, I will make it brief.
I remember when you moved in across from me on the river. Our first words to each other..."you have horses". Daily, you would trot up the drive and get me, and we would go thru the woods telling old war stories. We both did our art, and shared our works, criticisms, and tall tales of adventure. I don't feel Ur gone. Somehow, when the breeze blows thru the Century oaks, I hear the whinnys from Ur barn, and house...and know your wings are forever wrapped around me, & my horse. Trot on....luv ya...
Leslie

I had the pleasure of meeting Sue while she was living in Texas and a member of an artists co-op where we all called her "Super Dan"!! I love the two paintings of hers that i have - both in a contemporary style she was expermenting in and a larger format she'd never done before. She was an exceptional woman and will truly leave a void with her absence.